I have an Asus laptop and I could not be any more happy with it. The build quality on it is very nice. It is a higher end model, but I imagine their more budget friendly laptops are up to par on build quality. Really anything by Asus or Lenevo would be a good option in terms of quality.

FWIW, I dropped my Lenovo U150 netbook down stairs, flat on hardwood, and was exposed to split coffee in my car for an extended period. Aside from obvious cosmetic scratches it still works. Had it for about 3+ years. I had a Dell laptop in the past and it fell apart in less than 2. Lenovo all the way!

+ It's made by Samsung (her favourite brand)+ It's really nicely styled+ Thin and light+ Has an HDMI output+ It apparently has a great trackpad with gestures etc

My only concern is that it doesn't seem to be particularly fast for the money, but being honest, I think any i5 CPU will be more than enough for my mum - and the form factor, keyboard, screen etc is all far more important than the processor for her.

Apple tends to have nicer trackpads than the Synaptics rubbish I see in the usual PC World laptops. Otherwise I don't think there's anything particularly spectacular about them. They can have the same hardware issues as any device that's mass-produced in China.

Some Sony machines seem to be built fairly well but they have a higher price tag. Lenovo of course have the Thinkpads, though they're not the prettiest, they have a reputation for reliability. Can't vouch for Samsung but I tend to avoid their stuff on the back of my poor experiences with their hard disks. I've heard great things about their SSDs though (the 830 in particular).

It helps to have a look at them in a store as some laptops while looking impressive "on paper" can feel pretty cheap when you actually see them. It's also worth remembering that manufacturers have consumer and business class machines. The Toshiba you buy for £300 in PC World isn't going to be the same as the £600 Toshiba you see online.

Thank you - you're not wrong about the trackpads on Apples, I love the one on my girlfriend's Macbook, I haven't used a single Windows laptop that even comes close to it!

Samsung is the company that's tempting me the most right now, for example the two above, although to get a Samsung with SSD is around £900+, so rather out of the budget unfortunately! Interesting that there are consumer and business class and consumer class, I'm guessing that also explains the differences in the laptops above? And why an older laptop looks to have much better quality than the newer one?

I come from the PC world, I've been using PCs and Windows laptops for the ~20 last years, but I bought a MacBook Pro Retina in august for a change. Trust me, I'm not a Apple fanboy, but I've never seen a Windows laptop that had the build quality the MacBook Pro has!

Apple tends to have nicer trackpads than the Synaptics rubbish I see in the usual PC World laptops. Otherwise I don't think there's anything particularly spectacular about them. They can have the same hardware issues as any device that's mass-produced in China.

Some Sony machines seem to be built fairly well but they have a higher price tag. Lenovo of course have the Thinkpads, though they're not the prettiest, they have a reputation for reliability. Can't vouch for Samsung but I tend to avoid their stuff on the back of my poor experiences with their hard disks. I've heard great things about their SSDs though (the 830 in particular).

It helps to have a look at them in a store as some laptops while looking impressive "on paper" can feel pretty cheap when you actually see them. It's also worth remembering that manufacturers have consumer and business class machines. The Toshiba you buy for £300 in PC World isn't going to be the same as the £600 Toshiba you see online.

And finally there's the OS. Will she like OS X or Windows 8 more?

My Sony Vaio has a pretty kickass Synaptics touchpad. It has full multitouch support. Two-finger scroll, ChiralScroll (iPod click wheel style circle scrolling without having to lift up your finger, ever), two-finger tap for right click, holding one finger and tapping with the other for middle click, three-finger tap for back in the browser, ... It's usually a driver issue.

The worst touchpads by far aren't those made by Synaptics but those by ELAN and ALPS. They are atrocities.

Lenovo is the next best brand I have had Lenovo for years best brand next to Apple, also I have Apple hardware too, but I trust that Lenovo if I were to drop my tablet it would survive something I couldnt do with my MacBook Pro